The inaugural Just A Card Week (June 18-22) has got off to a very strong start with social media channels ablaze promoting the campaign which seeks to celebrate the contribution independent shops and creative make and encourage people to support them more.
‘Imagine a world where people supported independents like they do celebrities they don’t even know! Why should celebrities have all the fun?! We need to redress the balance and make independents the stars of the show,’ is one of the pro-indie battle cries for the Just A Card Week.
The new designated Week is just part of an ongoing campaign that is the brainchild of artist, author and card publisher Sarah Hamilton, that has been going for three years.
“The enthusiasm for the Just A Card Week is quite overwhelming to be honest,” Sarah admitted to PG Buzz. “It feels rather like preparing for a party and waiting nervously to see if anyone turns up,” she added on the eve of the official start to the Week.
She need not worry as the Just A Card Week ‘party’ is already in full swing with people responding to prompts for a five day Instagram challenge, which asks people to share why they think it is important to support independents and to value creativity and individuality – and will culminate in a ‘Happy Dance’ on Friday.
Sarah says one of the aims of the Week is “to increase our audience so when Christmas comes we’re in a strong position to remind people to support independent shops and makers.”
Sarah is delighted that Cardgains buying group has recently come on board, promoting and distributing Just A Card window stickers to its members.
“Penny [Shaw, marketing director of Cardgains] informed me that she’s never known their members be so interested in something as they are in the campaign, which is fantastic,” says Sarah.
“We’re very keen to spread word of the shop window stickers so even more shops get them. We’re starting a programme to invite one shop in each town to act as a ‘hub’ – to be the place people can pick up stickers/they’ll distribute from. We already have a few – but shall be building this up over the next few months.”
The campaign is no longer just confined to the UK with interest growing from abroad. “A business in Italy has translated our poster into Italian,” reveals Sarah who would also like to translate it into German, French and Spanish as a result of requests. “There are lots of supporters in US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand too,” she adds.
The new Just A Card pin badges (sold for £10 to help raise funds for the campaign) have been very popular, with the second batch almost sold out. “I ordered double this time as people love them and they’ve been selling like hotcakes. Hopefully they can provide a little rolling income as I’d prefer to not pay most of the campaign bills myself anymore, as the campaign grows so do the expenses,” admits Sarah.
- You have until the end of this week to enter the Just A Card Week Great Giveaway the prizes of which include a business mentoring session from The Design Trust; a portfolio or branding review by art licensor Jehane Boden Spears; a six month subscription to Makelight and a copy of of the House of Cards book, by Sarah Hamilton which highlights greeting card art. The closing date for entries is Friday June 22 with the winner selected next week.
Visit www.justacard.org, Instagram: Justacard, Twitter: Justacard1
